


Only as Deep as the Mind Allows

by Laughsalot3412



Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: Multi, Seriously it's just cuddling, Shamless cuddling, This started out as Will/Wolfgang and then....expanded
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 10:37:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9231140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laughsalot3412/pseuds/Laughsalot3412
Summary: Will had always believed that he knew fear.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The Christmas Special has got me craving some Cluster-comfort! I can make no excuse for this shameless cuddling without plot except that I really wanted to do it.

Will had always believed that he knew fear.

He knew the adrenaline-soaked action when Diego shouted, “ _Gun!_ ” The frantic showdowns that left his heart pounding.

“Will. Will, take a breath.” Riley was facing him on their bed, concern flooding their connection.

He was a gasping, trembling thing curling into her. Their foreheads touched and their breaths mingled, his erratic and desperate. He tried to anchor himself in the blue of her eyes. The love in her face.

“What is it?” she asked. “Is it him?”

“No. I don’t—I don’t know what’s—”

“You are afraid.”

Sun’s voice was somewhere behind him, but he couldn’t bear to turn his gaze away from Riley to see her. Riley looked for both of them and gave him a snapshot of Sun standing next to the bed, arms crossed.

“I’m not sure,” he managed. Because he knew fear. Fear was something that propelled his body forward—throw the punch, find the weapon.

Now, he felt frozen.

“You are afraid.” Sun was uncompromising, but not unkind. “I have felt this way, my first night in prison.”

Will pushed himself just a little closer to Riley. His breaths were still short and fast. His heart was thundering in his chest.

Afraid.

“Okay.”

Riley pressed a kiss to his lips. They felt numb.

“There is no shame in fear,” Sun said.

“No.” Will snagged a breath. “It just really sucks.”

Sun’s footsteps moved around the room. “Fear is for those who are alone. Breathe. I will keep watch for you.”

 

* * * *

 

Sun’s pacing comforted Riley, and she could feel it starting to steady Will. The weight of their situation pressed down on her, pinning her to the bed.

Hope seemed far away these days.

“Hope is a strange thing,” Capheus said quietly.

The edge of the bed dipped as he sat. Will’s eyes broke their desperate fix on her to glance over her shoulder. He smiled at their visitor, faint and crooked.

Riley turned in his arms to face Capheus. His very presence was soothing, a warm, steadying hand on her shoulder even when he wasn’t touching her.

“When I was young, I used to imagine that hope was an animal. It had soft fur and sharp claws, like a lion.” Capheus’ laughter shone on his face.

Across the room, Sun said, “Hope sounds violent.”

“No, not violent.” Capheus kept speaking softly, right to Riley. “But hope has to be fierce, to fight. Hope survives when it should die. It’s there even when we don’t feel it.”

Riley let his words soak into her, like sunshine.

Will let out his breath in a sigh, and she felt it against the back of her neck and in her own lungs.

“Hope sounds possible when you talk about it,” Riley said.

“Then I will stay,” said Capheus, “and talk about it some more.”

Riley finally smiled at him. “I would like that.”

Sun paced and Capheus talked, and the weight on Riley’s chest felt easier. It was getting dark, and she and Will had been sleeping in bits and snatches for days. Exhaustion tugged at her, a different, more welcome weight.

Quiet humming filled the silent room—a gentle song from a childhood that wasn’t Riley’s and also was.

Kala hummed under her breath as she gathered their blankets off the floor and tucked them around Riley and Will. She brought the smell of flowers with her.

Riley knew the song, and she felt the memories that went along with it: safe in her mother’s arms at night while a wild Bombay storm crashed outside.

Capheus was talking about watching flocks of birds in flight, and their graceful beauty blended with Kala’s song until the weight on Riley’s chest dissolved completely.

Kala and Capheus saw so much goodness in the world. When they were here, Riley could see it too. It felt sweet, like honey on her tongue.

 

* * * *

 

Riley fell asleep in Will’s arms. He was grateful to the others for filling the room with the exact sort of warmth she needed.

Capheus was whispering his stories as if he could shape her dreams. Will hoped he could.

He wanted to be soothed to sleep by their gentleness. Kala’s song was pretty, but it wouldn’t protect them from BPO’s agents if they burst through the door.

The only thing helping him breathe was Sun’s vigilant watch out the windows. With his mind fuzzy from drugs and exhaustion, he felt terrifyingly vulnerable. Exposed.

A body pressed against his back in a hard line of muscle.

“You worry worse than my fucking grandmother.”

Will dredged up some snark from deep inside him. “You didn’t even know your grandmother.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Wolfgang said, his breath puffing on Will’s skin. “I still know you worry more than she did.”

He put his arm around Will, wedging it between him and Riley, and pulled Will close. Wolfgang’s grip was crushing, almost too rough. The kind of hold you’d use to pin your enemy down before snapping his neck.

It was exactly the kind of strength Will needed at his back.

If their enemies came…

“Stop thinking,” Wolfgang ordered. His voice vibrated in Will’s ear.

“He can’t stop thinking, he’s got that big cop brain,” Nomi teased. Will lifted his head and saw her sitting next to Capheus, stroking Riley’s hair. She used just the right amount of softness to ease the lines of tension around Riley’s eyes and not wake her.

“So just turn it off.” Wolfgang’s hand was a fist over Will’s heart, holding him so tightly that Will’s ribs complained.

“Ah, if only we could.” Lito’s fondness swept over them. “Some of us have trouble locking our thoughts away, my friend.”

Wolfgang’s teeth nipped at the back of Will’s neck.

“Hey!”

“Stop thinking.”

“I _can’t_.”

“Yes, you can.” Wolfgang’s other hand slid up to wrap around Will’s throat. “Focus.” He squeezed just hard enough to make sure Will understood that he wasn’t fucking around. Will swallowed, feeling his throat move against Wolfgang’s hand.

Wolfgang would never hurt him, and Will wasn’t afraid of him. No, all his fear was for who was out there, looking for them…

“Stop,” Wolfgang growled. His fingers dug into Will’s throat.

Lito knelt beside the bed and rested his hand over Wolfgang’s. “Careful, careful.”

It released some of the tension in Wolfgang’s mind, but his grip on Will stayed strong.

“Trust us,” Lito said. He brushed a kiss against Will’s temple.

Kala was singing now, words that he somehow understood. Capheus described animals Will had never seen. Nomi made sure Riley still slept. Wolfgang steadied Will, and Lito steadied Wolfgang. From the corner, Sun watched over them all.

Will closed his eyes and surrendered himself to them—their hands and their minds. Their touch and their words and their songs.

A ripple of satisfaction shivered through the room.

Nomi’s hand found his hair. Lito kissed him again, slower, on the lips.

Wolfgang eased his grip on Will’s throat, smoothing his fingers against the soft skin. He pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the pulse point of Will’s neck, right under his jaw.

“You’re not alone,” Sun said, across the room. “Don’t be afraid.”

And he wasn’t.

 

 


End file.
